In this Sept. 29, 2018, file photo, Notre Dame tight end Alize Mack smiles as he crosses the goal line for a touchdown during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Stanford in South Bend, Ind. Mack had a simple answer on his preparation for Navy. “Just the details, really. Tightening up all the screws in our game, not getting lazy,” he said. “It’s the little things, footwork, slants, position blocking, staying low. Can’t let those things slip later on in the season cause now the stakes are high.” (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

Tight end Alize Mack (86) participates in drills during the second day of Saints rookie minicamp at the Saints practice facility in Metairie, La., Saturday, May 11, 2019.

Advocate Staff photo by SOPHIA GERMER

In this Sept. 29, 2018, file photo, Notre Dame tight end Alize Mack smiles as he crosses the goal line for a touchdown during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Stanford in South Bend, Ind. Mack had a simple answer on his preparation for Navy. “Just the details, really. Tightening up all the screws in our game, not getting lazy,” he said. “It’s the little things, footwork, slants, position blocking, staying low. Can’t let those things slip later on in the season cause now the stakes are high.” (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

The former Notre Dame tight end could hardly find the right adjectives as he swooned over the opportunities to play for Saints coach Sean Payton and with future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees as New Orleans’ seventh-round pick this spring, but the subtle perks of life as a professional football player have not escaped Mack, either.

“It’s all just great. When I walk in this locker room, I’m like ‘Holy crap, even the bathroom!’ The bathroom is crazy, it’s nice,” he chuckled. “I love the culture here. There’s no other place I’d rather be, and that’s the honest truth.”

An acute attention to detail will go a long ways to endearing himself to the team’s meticulous starting quarterback, but that’s not always been one of Mack’s strong points.

In fact, his own immaturity and self-describe “slacking” quickly turned the public perception of the nation’s top-rated tight end coming out of high school in 2015 sour. In consequence, considered one of the top 100 athletic talents in last month’s NFL draft, Mack free fell toward the end of the draft after an underwhelming college career partnered with a series of poor off-the-field decisions that marred his time in South Bend, Indiana — more than it should have, if you ask the tight end.

“I’m not a guy to have problems with women, DUIs, drugs. I’m not that type of dude. For me, it was little mistakes and (a lack of) maturity,” he said. “At Notre Dame, everything is held to a higher standard, and punishments were more severe, and as a young guy, that can seem like nagging. But at the end of the day, you won’t understand why Notre Dame is the way it is until you make it here.

“They say ‘Notre Dame isn’t for everyone’ and you don’t realize that, for me, until your senior year, and you look back and say ‘I remember how I was as a freshman, and I see how I am now and all I’ve learned.’ ”

Mack’s first transgression as a freshman under coach Brian Kelly was hardly a cardinal sin, but one hard to get away with at one of the country’s most renowned academic institutions — he didn’t make good enough grades while playing in all of his team’s 13 games, recording five starts and catching at least three balls three separate times.

As punishment, Mack was forced to sit out his sophomore year while being allowed to continue practicing with the team.

“It was just coming in as a freshman immature. I didn’t have things in order, and I just slacked. I was more focused on football than I was on school,” he said. “And that’s all on me.”

Mack returned to the fold as a junior, catching at least five passes twice while grabbing his first college touchdown catch against Miami. But leading up to his team’s Citrus Bowl matchup on New Year’s Day against LSU, the Las Vegas native quickly let one mistake compound itself into two.

After showing up late for one of his first-semester classes, Mack blew off his punishment of cleaning up the Fighting Irish’s weight room. As a consequence, Kelly suspended the former Bishop Gorman standout from the game with the Tigers on one of the game’s biggest stages.

“Maybe at some other schools, it might not have been as severe a punishment, but at Notre Dame, the standard is higher,” he said.

Despite having to contend with rumors that his suspension was drug-related after Kelly refused to disclose the reason behind Mack’s suspension, the seventh-round pick is thankful for the lessons he’s gleaned from his shortcomings and how they can help him as he hopes to build a professional football career.

“Nothing’s guaranteed. You’re not on a four-year scholarship anymore, and that’s in the back of your mind,” he said. “You’re making sure you’re everywhere on time. You’re a locker room guy, doing what you’re supposed to do.”

Alongside newly acquired starting tight end Jared Cook and longtime undrafted free agent Josh Hill, Saints assistant head coach Dan Campbell said he’s already begun to see an athletic asset Mack projected out of high school. Partnered with the spurning of falling to the seventh round, he believes the team could have a young threat on its roster.

“You see he’s got some twitch to him. He’s got good hips. He’s catching the ball pretty well. So far, we like what we see,” Campbell said. “I think the kid has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder in a good way. And I think he probably felt like he should have gone higher, but everything happens for a reason. I think he’s going to use that to his advantage.

“I don’t feel like he’s come in as somebody pouting that he didn’t go earlier or anything like that. I feel like he came in and wanted to go to work.”

No matter where the Saints finally snagged him, the reality of becoming an NFL player came to Mack with the same rush of emotion. It didn’t matter what he’d been ranked coming out of high school, how many passes he caught for Notre Dame or how many games he had missed.

The only distinctive mark the Saints used to label each of their 75 players on the field during Saturday’s rookie minicamp was a last name taped to their helmets.

“Now, all it matters is what you do once you get here,” Mack said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re ranked or what your stats were or what round you went in. It all matters what you do.”